Tuesday, September 7. 2010

This video was a one-take wonder that had a skeleton of topics we were going to use. Thankfully, it went pretty smooth overall. This wasn't scripted and has a feel of just two IT guys hanging out and talking about technology, because that's exactly what it was. The fact that the video cameras were there didn't really faze us.

This is the official description of "Bytes on TechNet":
Listen or watch the latest series of Bytes by TN as 24 influential community and Microsoft IT Professionals interviewed at Tech·Ed 2010 talk about Windows 7, SharePoint 2010, Windows Azure and a variety of additional topics that they are passionate about.

Monday, August 30. 2010

One stop shop for avoiding the confusing maze of Microsoft support links to get all the required hot fixes and updates to install Exchange 2010 SP1.

I typically download all the updates and divide them into 3 different ZIP files. 2008-R1.zip for all Server 2008 R1 hot fixes. 2008-R2.zip for all Server 2008 R2 hot fixes. Shared.zip for all the updates that are shared on both platforms. Very handy to keep on a USB thumb drive.

The only updates in the list that are not a deployment blocker by the Exchange 2010 SP1 setup program are the Server 2008 R2 WMI memory leak hot fixes - KB 977357 and 981314. If you monitor your Exchange servers with System Center Operations Manager or anything that repeatedly polls the WMI Win32_Service class, this hot fix is recommended.

From time to time, Microsoft updates the hot fixes. You can see that a few of the hot fixes are already on v2.

The upcoming service packs for Windows and .NET Framework will reduce the importance of these updates and will render the collection obsolete.

Monday, July 26. 2010

1. From an elevated PowerShell prompt: Import-Module ServerManager [Enter]
2. Install the prerequisites for Group Chat Server with: Add-WindowsFeature AS-NET-Framework,Desktop-Experience,FS-FileServer,NET-Framework-Core,MSMQ-Server,MSMQ-Directory,RSAT-ADDS,WAS-Process-Model,WAS-Config-APIs,Web-HTTP-Logging,Web-Mgmt-Compat,Web-Mgmt-Console,Web-Static-Content,Web-Windows-Auth [Enter]
3. Install KB 975858 so certificate based authentication works properly.
4. Install the OCS Group Chat Server as you normally would on any other operating system. Elan's guide is helpful for this (Part 1 / Part 2).
5. Install the OCS Core update from here and the UC API update from here. (If those links are outdated, go to KB 968802 for the latest links or use the ServerUpdateInstaller.exe)
6. Install the OCS 2007 R2 CU6 Group Server update from here. It is also a good idea to grab the Admin tools update from here and updated client from here.
7. At this point, if you try to start the OCS Group Chat Server services, they will stop without anything useful in the Event Logs. I'll save you time debugging this by pointing you to this older KB article here. You need to run %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2\Group Chat Server\ServerConfigTool.exe so that the tool will update the Group Chat database schema to the QFE1 level.
8. After running the ServerConfigTool.exe, you'll be able to start the update OCS 2007 R2 Group Chat services.

Celebrate, at this point you'll have a working Group Chat install on Server 2008 R2.

I've heard of numerous reports of the CU6's SQL back-end update having version mismatch problems with the front-end update.

One cause I can speculate on is that the web caches that Microsoft uses publish the updated bits are lagging behind. Unfortunately, due to the updates always having the same filename from Cumulative Update to Cumulative Update, it is hard to determine what version you have downloaded without looking at the file dates stored in each individual update.

If the front-end is updated without the proper back-end update, the front-end will complain about version mismatches in the SQL stored procedures.

Update: A tip from Tom Pacyk - install the OCS2009-DBUpgrade.msi before the other CU6 updates.

I talked a little about the .NET 4.0 issue here a few days ago but now that .NET 4.0 is on Windows/Microsoft Update as a recommended update, it is hitting more users during OCS installation.

If you install .NET 4.0 Framework before installing any OCS server role, the OCS setup program will complain that .NET 3.5x is not installed, even if you have .NET 3.5x installed (x being equal to 0 or 1, meaning .NET 3.50 or .NET 3.51).

Solution? Uninstall .NET 4.0 Framework, install OCS server roles, and then install .NET 4.0 if necessary. The OCS product team is working with the Windows product team to get a hotfix/update out for this.

Ideally, I wish there was a service pack for OCS 2007 R2 that had updated install bits for the ASN fix and the Server 2008 R2 gotchas.

Tuesday, July 20. 2010

As a follow-up to my blog entry about the Outlook 2007 update for Exchange 2010, we have an update released for Outlook 2003 for Exchange 2010! I didn't really expect to see this show up but it will help users when the Exchange 2010 SP1 calendar repair agent kicks in.

When you use Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 or Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 in a Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 environment, the body of the meeting request may be changed to the following text: One or more problems with your meeting were detected and fixed.

I'm expecting to see an update for Outlook 2007 sometime soon to add support for Exchange 2010's personal mailbox archives. Outlook 2010 supports them out of the box, and Exchange 2010 SP1 allows you to store the archive mailbox in a different information store (i.e. slower SAN or drives).

Open a PowerShell instance with elevated rights.
In the PowerShell window, type: Import-Module ServerManager and hit [Enter].
When that completes, enter the command below for the OCS server role(s) needed:

These commands are largely based on the Server 2008 R1 blog entries here and here.

If my blog software shows the Add-WindowsFeature items on multiple lines, cut and paste the commands together onto one line inside PowerShell.

Note: If you install .NET Framework 4.0 before installing OCS, the OCS setup program will complain that .NET Framework 3.5 is missing, even if .NET Framework 3.5 has been installed. Thankfully, you can uninstall .NET Framework 4.0 if you bump into this issue and the setup program will behave normally. Thanks go out to Mark Rineck for discovering this.

Note 2: As mentioned on other sites, Web-HTTP-Logging is technically optional, but makes debugging IIS and OCS much easier if available.

In particular, there seem to be a few Exchange 2010 fixes directly related to Outlook 2007 crashing.

The issues fixed that caught my eye include:

1. This hotfix provides a design change. After you install this hotfix, the Secure Temp folder for Office Outlook 2007 is automatically cleared when you exit Office Outlook 2007.

2. After the Outlook mailboxes are moved a server that is running Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, Office Outlook 2007 crashes intermittently.

3. In Office Outlook 2007, all received email messages are stored incorrectly in the Deleted Items folder. (Unfortunately, I've had clients keep very important e-mail in Deleted Items and then wonder where the messages went when they empty the Deleted Items folder.)

4. You may have data loss on meeting update when you use Office Outlook 2007 against Exchange Server 2010. When this issue occurs, the body of the meeting request is replaced by the following text: One or more problems with your meeting were detected and fixed.

5. After you install the Office Live Meeting Add-in for Microsoft Outlook, Office Outlook 2007 crashes during startup.

You can read more about the update here, and as general rule of thumb, it is good to keep the MSO.DLL updated as well, from here.

Thursday, July 1. 2010

I always get nervous on the morning of July 1st ever since 2006. Thankfully I received this in email:
"Dear Aaron Tiensivu, Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2010 Microsoft® MVP Award!"

I haven't posted much lately but that will change as some of these newer products get out the door. W7 SP1 and OCS/CS "Wave 14" in particular. Can't neglect Exchange 2010 SP1 either, but the public beta is already out for that.

Issue #1: Using the OCS 2007 R2 Administration tools on Server 2008 R2 has shown to be problematic for moving users from LCS and OCS 2007 R1/R2 to other OCS servers. For now, it is best to use a non-Server 2008 R2 workstation or server to move users to and from OCS servers. You can 'force' the users to move, but it doesn't always result in a good move. So, avoid it if possible.

Issue #2: If you are trying to run "ABServer.exe -SyncNow" on an OCS 2007 R2 server running on Server 2008 R2, you will need to create a new DWORD registry entry at HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\DisableLoopbackCheck set to the value of 1.

Due to .NET 3.5 SP1 on Server 2008 R2, if this registry value is not set, you will receive an error message of "Triggering Address Book Server synchronization pass - function not available when RTCSRV service is not running. Start the RTCSRV service." A reboot may be required for the new registry setting to take effect.

Usually, manual regeneration of the address book is not required since the front end will refresh the contents every night by default. It is only the manual run of ABServer.exe that is affected on Server 2008 R2. It is normally best to leave DisableLoopbackCheck disabled (set to 0) if possible for security reasons.

Thankfully, OCS seems to perform very well on Server 2008 R2 once the known issues are worked around.

Microsoft keeps an updated KB article about these issues, which do not have these documented yet, here.

I also have my original guidance for OCS 2007 R2 on Server 2008 R2 here. I will work on getting these incorporated into the original post when I have a free moment.

Wednesday, May 19. 2010

The redesign of the Office website at Microsoft has made a few of the older links related to download of the Live Meeting client and Conferencing Add-In invalid, as pointed out by Matt Wade and followers of his website.

The issue has been reported to Microsoft and will hopefully soon be resolved, and this blog entry will be removed from this site.

Wednesday, May 5. 2010

KB 978164 - A conversation window opens unexpectedly when you press ENTER in the Search box in Office Communicator 2007
KB 979145 - The Office Communicator 2007 user interface pops up for all users who log on to a terminal server that is running Windows Server 2008

I suspect the release is mainly for the terminal server update and maybe OCS v.Next support.